Policy Review Reviewed: The Pubescent State of the 'New' Administrative Law

Abstract

This paper attempts to review the Administrative Appeals Tribunal's role in policy review as it reaches adulthood. It has survived initial concerns for its legitimacy and is now an established body moving into its maturity but in achieving adulthood, it has had to accommodate a fine balance in undertaking review on the merits. Whilst a number of criticisms can be levelled at the Tribunal and its place in the 'new' administrative order, the radical experiment has largely been successful and the Tribunal has established for itself a permanent and significant role in permitting citizen grievances against defective adminstrative decisions at the federal level to be aired and, where necessary, redressed. The revolution has been a quiet one and the Tribunal has reached adulthood without the magnitude of its significance being fully appreciated or perhaps today, even remembered.